Television

Friday, July 29, 2016

President Reagan's would-be assassin John Hinckley to be released from custody

Thirty-five years after he shot President Ronald Reagan and
three others outside a D.C. hotel, John W. Hinckley Jr. will be released from a
government psychiatric hospital, reported the Washington Post.

The ruling ends the institutionalization of the one of the
nation’s most notorious mental health patients.

Outrage over Hinckley’s acquittal in the 1981 shooting
reshaped the insanity defense in courts across the country. The revelation that
he had pulled the trigger to impress a movie star added obsession and celebrity
to the case. And extraordinary television footage of the attack on the 40th
U.S. president brought the event to millions of American homes.

In Wednesday’s court order, U.S. District Judge Paul L.
Friedman wrote that Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a
danger to himself or others and will be freed to live full time with his mother
in Williamsburg, Va. His release could come as early as Aug. 5 and is
subject to dozens of conditions, some of which could be phased out after a year
if Hinckley adheres to them.

After an eight-week trial, a federal jury in Washington
found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in June 1982 of all 13 counts
against him, setting off a sharp public backlash. The federal government and 38
states subsequently rewrote laws to raise the standard of proof required for
the insanity defense, which is now rarely used and is even more rarely
successful.

Some research has found that defendants successfully raise
an insanity defense in 1 of 500 felony cases nationwide and that of that small
pool, defendants are freed between 5 and 65 percent of the time depending
on the jurisdiction, making Hinckley’s release all the more exceptional.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.